The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) fails to ensure adequate protection of Quebec’s agricultural land. A situation which could lead to the long-term decline of the biofood sector, notes the Commissioner for Sustainable Development, Janique Lambert, in a performance audit made public on Thursday.
In his report tabled in the House this morning, the main environmental watchdog in Quebec criticizes MAPAQ for being too lax in the face of the “loss of cultivated areas” over the years. The observation is clear, according to the commissioner: without a good turn of the wheel, the sustainability of the arable territory is in danger, and the achievement of Quebec’s food autonomy targets, too.
“The agricultural land is an essential limited and non-renewable resource,” recalls Janique Lambert in her report. “If we do not take care of it, there is certainly a risk to food self-sufficiency,” she added to journalists, presenting her report on Thursday.
However, from 1988 to 2022, “6,772 hectares of the best land have been excluded”, she notes, in favor of “road and energy infrastructure”, “residences”, “commercial and industrial zones”, “quarries”. , sand pits and gravel pits”.
Result: barely a third of agricultural areas are under cultivation at present. A reality which has led to a staggering increase in the value of land (+84% from 2012 to 2022, according to the Financière agricole du Québec). The establishment of an agricultural succession takes its toll.
No precise directions
In this context, and even if the Law on the protection of land and agricultural activities prohibits the use of an agricultural lot for any purpose other than agriculture, the MAPAQ has not fulfilled its role of protection and implementation. in value of the land under its responsibility, concludes the commissioner in her report.
“Although the MAPAQ is aware of the major issues that harm the sustainability of the agricultural territory, it has not developed precise orientations in its strategic plans nor in the biofood policy allowing it to face them,” we can say. read.
In practice, the government “does not show the actors the way forward”. “It is difficult, if not impossible, to know the ministry’s intentions in the short, medium and long term, because it has not identified the precise and measurable objectives that it wants to achieve,” notes Commissioner Lambert.
Tools provided for in the law, such as the establishment of an arable land bank to facilitate the establishment of a succession in agriculture, have not been set up either, she deplores.
MAPAQ is not the only one to be slapped on the wrist in this report. The Commissioner for Sustainable Development also designates the Commission for the Protection of Agricultural Territory of Quebec (CPTAQ) as one of the main responsible for the increasingly limited access to arable land.
“The surveillance exercised by the CPTAQ is insufficient to detect offenses committed in agricultural zones and to be able to act diligently to correct the situation,” she notes. Practices such as land fragmentation, for example, tend to fly under the commission’s radar.
The submission of this audit occurs in a context of “crisis in agriculture”, according to the words used by Prime Minister François Legault himself. Quebec producers deplore the significant repercussions of inflation and Quebec regulations on their annual income.